Roasted Garlic

By kathya5084

As garlic roasts, its pungent, aggressive flavor mellows, and the cloves turn into a nutty, sweet, almost buttery spread that's delicious when slathered on crusty bread as a simple appetizer. Look for a medium to large bulb (also called a head) of garlic for roasting. Larger cloves are easier to separate and provide more garlic paste per clove.
One medium garlic bulb yields about 15 cloves garlic or about 1 tablespoon of garlic paste. You can roast multiple bulbs at once.

Ingredients

• 10 medium heads garlic
• 3 tablespoonsolive oil

Details

Preparation time 5mins
Cooking time 45mins

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Arrange heads of garlic on a baking sheet or muffin tins. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed.

Roasted garlic is great served with bread, crackers or apples. People can peel off a clove of the garlic and literally squeeze the garlic out of it's shell onto their bread or cracker. You can serve the paste warm or cooled to room temperature.
To use roasted garlic in cooking, squeeze the cooled bulb from the bottom of the papery husk, and the garlic paste will pop out.

Easy Ways to Love Roasted Garlic:
Mix roasted garlic paste with a little olive oil and toss with hot cooked pasta and grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese.
Stir it into plain soft-style cream cheese, add a little softened butter, and season with a sprinkle of snipped fresh thyme and rosemary or Italian seasoning. Spread onto crackers or toasted or grilled baguette slices.
Add it to a vinaigrette made with one part red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar to two parts olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Combine it with softened butter and rub over a roasting chicken.
Toss it into tomato sauce or pesto and use as a sauce for pizza.
Stir it into olive oil or butter, add a squeeze of lemon, and toss with hot cooked new potatoes, asparagus, carrots, or a veggie mélange
Combie with sour cream for baked potatoes.